Post by codystarbuck on Feb 10, 2018 0:54:09 GMT -5
Humor comics tend to get poo-pooed in the fan world; but, there is some really great material in them. I was and still am a huge fan of DC's Fox and Crow comics, as well as the Three Mousketeers. Bob Hope, Dobie Gillis and Jerry Lewis sold a ton of comics.
And I like "funny books", but a lot of them don't have a lot of substance beyond a first time read. IDK, maybe it's just me sounding pretentious, but I'd rather think about the humor with books like Howard The Duck, Transmetropolitan, and Preacher than have them flat out explained like in Harvey or Archie books
As for funny books, it really depends on the material and the creators. Sheldon Mayer's stuff really holds up well, going back to his beginnings in the 40s. Bob Oskner was terrific with sight gags. Barks' Ducks are great characters, with fantastic adventures. Howie Post is another who was a great visual humorist. Richie Rich had some really good material in the early days, which got watered down over time and as repetition took hold. The George Baker Sad Sack had some really great stuff. The Harvey stuff was occasionally great, often good, and sometimes lame. Archie had plenty of decent material, depending on the title. Li'l Archie and Life With Archie had some of the best, in my opinion, especially in the 60s.
The Jungle-Jangle Comics of the 40s hold up well, as do 40s and 50s Bugs Bunny comics. Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle did some excellent Hanna-Barbera material.
I like Howard the Duck; but, kind of felt the satire wore thin fairly quickly. The earlier stuff holds up better.
My personal tastes kind of flow between comedy styles. I like a lot of charm that some of the funny animal and children's comics had, even if they aren't laugh-out-loud funny to me, as an adult. I'm a huge fan of Barks, the Looney Tunes cartoons and 50s and 60s comics, Sheldon Mayer, the Inferior Five, stuff like Anthro and Metamorpho, Plastic Man, E-Man, Bone, Cerebus (about the first half, mostly), Patty Cake (brilliant all-ages humor), some of Giffen's material (Ambush Bug, etc...), Milk & Cheese (and other material from Dorkin and Sarah Dyer), and tons of great newspaper comics.
